'Birthers' want Roberts impeached if he swears in Obama

Members of the "birther movement" at the conservative website World Net Daily (WND.com), are suggesting that Chief Justice John Roberts should be impeached if he swears in President Barack Obama for a second term.

Craige McMillan, a columnist for WND.com, wrote an open letter to the Chief Justice this week, asking him not to swear in Obama because he does not meet the Constitution's definition of a "natural born citizen."

According to McMillan, although Roberts may be excused for having sworn in Obama for a first term, this time around he has no grounds to claim ignorance of the fact that Obama does not meet the Constitutional requirements of a "natural born citizen." McMillan argues that because Obama's father was of Kenyan nationality, "perhaps holding British citizenship as well," Barack Obama is not a natural born citizen of the US. McMillan writes: "He (Obama) is not natural born, and can never be natural born, because of his father. Therefore, Barack Obama is not qualified to be president and never will be qualified.This would still be true, even if he received every vote cast."

"Your failure to investigate these citizenship issues surrounding Mr. Obama at the time questions were raised during his first term places you in a terrible position. You are now confronted with a most difficult choice. Your own oath of office, sworn before God and the American people, requires you to uphold the Constitution. (If not you, then who?) If you now administer the oath of office for the presidency to a man who by his own admission fails to meet the natural born citizen requirement imposed by that Constitution, you have violated your own oath of office and are rightly subject to impeachment by any House of Representatives, at any time, now or in the future."

He warns Roberts that if he chooses to ignore the Constitution and swears in Obama, it will not change the fact that Obama is not qualified to be president. He warns the CJ that his action would "insure his impeachment and eternal dishonor at some point down the road: If not this House of Representatives, then the next, or the next, or the next."

McMillan makes an ominous reference to the Nuremberg Trials after the World War II, with an oracular statement: "These things do not end well."

He warned that the consequence of swearing in Obama would be, "Illegal wars. Illegal debts. Illegal laws," and asks: "Will the rest of the Supreme Court’s justices, now knowing they are violating their own oath of office, continue the sham through a second presidential term? How, then, is the highest court of law in the nation any different than that pictorial proverb in Japan of the three monkeys who see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil?"

He ends his message urging the CJ to take the "honorable course of action" and refuse to administer the oath of office to Obama.

Reactions

National Memo pulls no punches, describing the "folks" at WorldNetDaily as "unhinged crazies" and McMillan's open letter to the Chief Justice as "melodramatic." The website ridicules the "birtherville" folks, saying:

"It’s the same old song and dance… they demand to see the birth certificate. They are shown the birth certificate. They claim birth certificate can’t be real.Then they start shrieking that he 'refuses' to show the birth certificate. They are again shown the birth certificate. They’re then shown the birth announcement from the local Hawaii newspaper from 1961. So they scream louder, 'WHERE’S THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE?'"

In its reaction to McMillan's argument that Obama is not a "natural born citizen," the website argues:

"It’s been proven over and over over again that the president was born in Hawaii. But let’s say for the sake of argument that he wasn’t… here are the requirements for American citizenship with one American parent and one foreign parent, if you’re born on foreign soil:

If you are born abroad to one United States citizen and one foreign citizen, you may be considered a U.S. citizen if you meet the following requirements:

• One of your parents was a U.S. citizen when you were born. CHECK

• The parent who is a U.S. citizen has lived at least five years in the U.S. before you were born. CHECK

• The parent who is a U.S. citizen must have lived in the U.S. for at least two years of these five years after his/her fourteenth birthday. CHECK

Our laws are quite clear: If you spring from an American womb, you’re an American. Whether you’re born in Kenya,Panama or on Mars, if your mom was a born-and-bred, Kansas-cornfed American — like Stanley Ann Dunham Obama — you’re an American and thus eligible for the presidency. PERIOD."

The online debate

However, a reader posting a comment in The New Civil Rights movement, insists that the Constitution distinguishes in its requirements for the office of the president between a "citizen" and "natural born citizen." kibitzer3 argues:

"The issue is not whether he is a 'citizen' or not. It is whether he is a 'natural born citizen' or not. That is a higher bar of citizenship set in the Constitution for a candidate for the office of the presidency... It was set that way in order to rule out a candidate who could have dual loyalties or allegiances by virtue of not having TWO U.S. CITIZEN PARENTS.

"Being born 'of the soil' (jus soli) is also a factor in the definition of the term, beyond the critical factor of being born 'of the blood' (jus sanguinis). But the key issue is the parentage one. The definition of a NBC ("natural born citizen") was very clear to the Framers of the Constitution, and has been affirmed by various Supreme Court decisions subsequently.

"This matter should have been dealt with long ago... Let's get with it, and deal with it. Because I assure you, it is not going to go away. There are still many citizens left in this country who believe in, and will fight for, the Constitution. To say: who don't believe in arbitrary law. Another word for which is tyranny."

Obama citizenship, a longstanding controversy

According to The Huffington Post, McMillan's argument was essentially the same as Joe Montgomery's, a Kansas resident who, in September, sought to have the Kansas Objections Board remove Obama from the ballot in the state. Montgomery argued that citizenship "flows" from the father and that because Obama's father was not an American, Obama could not be a US citizen.

The Huffington Post reports that the Objections Board voted to hear Montgomery's objection but dropped it after he withdrew, saying he was threatened.